Núñez's ire brings fast results

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Published
4:00 am PDT, Sunday, June 5, 2005

Somewhere in Sacramento there are a couple of sizzling, four-letter- word-laced voicemails left by Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez -- who went absolutely ballistic the other day over a new radio ad put out by his friends in the California Alliance for Jobs.

Bad enough that the ad, which features comedian Will Durst, praises Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for putting $1.3 billion of gas tax money back in the budget for road repairs.

But the alliance -- which gets a good chunk of change from Democrat- friendly unions -- also took a poke at Núñez and company, telling listeners: "Before we break out the champagne, remember -- we still need a final budget from the Legislature."

"He never talked to me," said alliance head Jim Earp. "I heard about them thirdhand -- but what I heard isn't printable."

From what we're told, Núñez was ticked off on a number of fronts. For starters, he had already proposed putting the money back into roads.

"But the governor -- who was a Johnny-come-lately to the issue -- gets the credit," Núñez spokesman Steve Maviglio said.

Then there was the political etiquette. Apparently, the alliance folks gave the governor a heads-up about the ad, but said nothing to the speaker when they met with him the day before the commercial started running.

"And this is after the speaker stuck his neck out for them by pushing for the funding in the first place," Maviglio said.

Hence the phone calls.

"Hey," Maviglio said, "he's following in the footsteps of John Burton," the former state Senate leader from San Francisco whose supply of expletives was endless.

Did it work? Well, the ad still praises the governor, but it's been tweaked to drop all mention of pushing the Legislature.

The bachelor: Soon-to-be-wed Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown had a bachelor party the other night.

"Dazzlingly boring" is how one attendee described the North Beach Restaurant cellar gathering. "It was over by 10:30 p.m."

From the sounds of things, it was more of a sentimental remembrance than roasting of Brown. One gem: a relative recalling how Jerry, at age 11, proudly declared at a family celebration that he had just completed reading the World Book encyclopedia.

By the way, we're told that wealthy Peninsula developer and Democratic moneyman George Marcus picked up most of the tab for the gathering.

As for the mayor and would-be state attorney general turning in early, "Jerry is on a pretty disciplined regimen these days and is trying to stay in shape for the wedding," says a pal. "He's not 21 years old."

He's also started jogging around Lake Merritt again.

And speaking of parties, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will be officiating over Brown's civil marriage to longtime live-in partner Anne Gust in two weeks, will be holding a prewedding reception for the couple at her home Sunday afternoon.

Pumping up the plaza: San Francisco spent a cool $1.5 million to spruce up United Nations Plaza in time for Mayor Gavin Newsom to host last week's big U.N. World Environment Day conference.

Department of Public Works officials tell us that the fix-up had been in the pipeline for the past five years, but that once San Francisco landed the celebration, the sprucing was put on the fast track.

Crews worked seven days a week to gussy up the broad brick plaza between Market Street and Civic Center, an area that over the years has been a magnet for drunks, drug dealers and panhandlers.

Workers put down 10,000 new bricks, rolled down patches of sod, power- cleaned light posts, sand-blasted the concrete fountain, polished the inlaid brass lettering and strung the flags of 191 U.N. nations across the plaza.

"Court TV anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, a former prosecutor and the estranged wife of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, is hot and heavy with CNN "American Morning" anchor Bill Hemmer. They've kept their relationship on the down low till recently. If Hemmer bows to his bosses' wishes by becoming CNN's White House correspondent, there might be a lot of Delta shuttle and Amtrak time for the budding lovebirds.

Budget buster: Newsom did his annual budget rollout this past week with the usual grilling by assorted reporters and editorial boards -- but the best question, for our money, came when he stopped by KFOG radio.

"How many of the city job cuts were Willie Brown's girlfriends?" asked DJ Dave Morey, relaying one listener's questions.

"Let's face facts," Morey said, "there's probably a couple of hundred of Willie's exes on the city payroll."

"That's gonna take more than a few years," Newsom shot back. "I mean, I'm not sure I can do that in my first term."